John armstrong chanler



(No Model.)

J. A. GHANLER.

PAVEMENT.

Patented May 17,1892.

UNITED ,STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN ARMSTRONG CHANLER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PAVEMENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 475,234, dated May 1'7', 1892.

Y Application filed March 4., 1892. Serial No. 423,689. (No model.)

To a/ZZ whom t may concern,.-

Be it known that- I, JOHN ARMSTRONG CHAN- LER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of NewYork and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pavements,

- phalt; fourth, surface of broken stone commonlyknownasmacadam. Alltheseforms 0f pavement present certain features of inferiority. The pavements made of blocks of stone are rough, disagreeable to ride over, and easily become uneven by depression of individual blocks or sections. The wooden pavements are found to be pleasant to ride over, but lacking in durability, owing to the permeation of moisture. The asphalt surfaces are convenient to travel over for the occupants of vehicles,but are exceedingly slippery and dangerous for horses. The macadam or brokenstone pavement, while excellent as a holdingsurface for horses feet, is difficult to keep clean, especially if of an extended character.

I am aware, too, that certain pavements have been patented in which horse-tracks and wheel-tracks of diiferent materials or constructions have been provided. For instance, wheel-tracks of asphalt have been combined with horsetracks of concrete and sunken wheel-tracks of stone or iron have been combined with horse-tracks of stone; but theseV forms of pavement present difficulties which have impaired their usefulness and which my improve-d pavement overcomes. The asphalt with the constant traffic of wheels is not durable. The more it is worn the rougher it becomes, this tendency constantly increasing. The concrete presents no better foothold for the horse than the asphalt. It is substantially the same material, except that it is cheaper; but the pavement still is far more expensive than mine, and, moreover, has none of the advantages of a pavement such as mine with horse-tracks and wheel-tracks of essentially different materials. Stone or iron wheeltracks sunk below the general surface of the roadway present obstructions to traffic well known in connection with ordinary streetcar tracks in which the top surface of the road- Way is also out into ruts or grooves or ridges. Moreover, they are known only in combination with stone horse-tracks.

My invention is that of an-improved pavement, which will combine the good features of former pavements and obviate the difficulties or many of the difficulties incident to each of them.

In the drawings annexed hereto, in which similar letters of reference refer to similar parts throughout the various views, Figure l is a plan or top View of my proposed pavement or roadway; Fig. 2, a cross-section thereof on line 2 2; Fig. 3, an enlarged detail top plan view, and Fig. 4 a cross-section thereof on line 4 4.

I construct my pavement and roadway as follows: I first lay upon suitable ties or stringers, or both, a series of parallel dat rails A A A sufficient to accommodate the travel of the street or road.

I have illustrated in my drawings three parallel lines of travel and three pairs of such rails, and in most cities the streets are wide enough for three or four lines of travel and three or four parallel lines of such rails. These rails I make, preferably, of Bessemer steel of suitable thickness-say one-halt inch in thickness-and very much broader than ordinary rails for street-cars. I recommend a breadth of from eight to twelve inches for each rail. These rails may be set, if desired, upon steel or iron ties, or the ties or stringers may be laid in a cement bed, to promote the durability of the structure. At the sides of the streets .or roadways, between the exterior line of rails and the curb D and between each pair of rails at the points marked C, I ill in the IOO at E E. Between the rails of each pair, at the points marked B in the drawings, I flll in with a composition, such as macadam, and lay the same upon a suitable foundation, (hydraulic concrete preferred,) which will insure as far as possible the maintenance of the macadam at the plane of the upper surface of the rail A and the stone filling C of the street. Thus my improved pavement consists, essentially, of a combination of fiat rails having their top surface flush with the general surface of the roadway and having between them a composition surface, such as macadam, of the same level as the rails, but differing from them in that it forms a proper holding-surface for the feet of horses. v

The stone pavements C at the side of the street and between the pairs of rails are an optional modification, whose design is to keep travel in the center of the roadway as far as possible and upon the line of rails, and the stone bordering for the rails acts t0 protect the pavement from transverse traffic. The rails will also tend to break up what would otherwise tend to be a continuous surface of the macadam, will form leveling-lines, by which the surface can be always brought up to thevtrue level, and will always afford a smooth and easy surface for the wheels of vehicles. Thus my pavement combines a smooth even surface for the wheels of vehicles, and at the same time a good holding-surface for the feet of horses, and means due to the above combination of features which render the maintenance of the roadway at a true level always easy, and the composition or characteristic of each part of thc pavement tends to assist and render unobjectionable any otherwise objectionable features of the other parts.

The use of my improved pavement will result in great economy both in the wear and tear of vehicles, in the expenditure of force in drawing vehicles, and in the saving of horses feet in traveling over the pavements.

What I claim, and desire to secure, is-

1. The roadway constructed, substantially as described, of fiat iron rails laid with their top surfaces flush with the general surface of the roadway, said flat iron rails being `of sufficient width and so located as to be adapted to wheels of common vehicles and filled in between with macadam or similar composition, substantially as and for the purposes described.

2. The improved roadway consisting of the fiat iron rails A, laid with their top surface flush with the general surface of the roadway, the macadam or composition B, and stone filling C, all combined together substantially as and for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 24th day of February, 1892.

JOHN ARMSTRONG CHANLER.

Witnesses:

' J. WARREN BIRD,

H. V. N. PHILIP. 

